I can’t take off a line such as “- - - -” between text. I created it by putting a series of dashes and then pressing enter. It will not delete. I have tried highlighting it and deleting it. It does not work. I even tried copying my text and opening a new document but the line appears in the new document as well. Software is Microsoft Word 2003.

Word’s AutoFormat Tool

Okay, I feel your pain. What you are seeing in action is Word’s AutoFormat feature. When enabled, a series of dashes followed by pressing the Enter key automatically become a Word border. If you act quickly, you can undo this change by either pressing the little lightning bolt symbol that appears and then choosing Undo Border Line.

But as you discovered, if you don’t act quickly, removing this border line becomes an exercise in frustration. In fact, the first thing that I did when starting this article was type in a series of dashes and press Enter. I, too, have an annoying border line that is stubbornly refusing to go away.

Unlike a line inserted using drawing tools, you can’t simply click the line and then press the Delete key. Plus, you can’t even simply copy and paste your text elsewhere because the line follows you.

Steps for Removing the Page Border

In Word 2003, try placing your cursor just above the line and then go to the Format > Borders and Shadings menu. Choose None. You may need to highlight the line first or choose Control + A for selecting all text.

In 2007, the steps are different. Word 2007 users need to go to Page Layout and click the Page Borders icon. From there, click the Borders tab and choose None. Since I have Word 2007, I used these steps. After much fiddling, the pesky line finally disappeared.

If your first few efforts don’t work, keep trying. My line finally disappeared when I placed the cursor at the end of the text just preceding the line.

Preventing Future AutoFormat Lines from Appearing

If you want to prevent future lines from appearing, you can turn off AutoFormat borders as you type option. Go to Tools > Auto Correct> AutoFormat as you type. Find the “Apply as you type” section and remove the checkmark for border lines.

Celeste Stewart | May 19th, 2009
Tags: line breaks, microsoft word, ms word, word characters
Categories: Microsoft Office

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